Staff Reports
A political plan of redistricting in the state has been temporarily suspended by an appeal court of the state. It came to the conclusion that the procedure used to establish the district borders was heavily biased against one political party over another.
According to the majority ruling of five judges, Democratic leaders in Congress developed the 2022 congressional redistricting plans without any Republican involvement, and it was passed by the Legislature without one Republican vote in its support.
The map designed for 2012 had 19 districts held by Democrats and 8 seats held by Republicans. The current map will have one less seat available for New York as a result of the state's declining population. Nevertheless, this alternative plan would have resulted in the Republicans losing five more seats. This indicates that the maximum number of Republican representatives a state with 27 congressional districts may have is three.
It is not feasible to locate a state with such a deep blue color. The fact that Democrats may still be able to get away with it is the worst part.
Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Democrats in the state Senate, was quoted as saying by Politico as saying, "We are happy the Court upheld the legislature's process" and that the legislature had the authority to implement these maps.
The maps of the Senate and Assembly that were recently redrawn are now considered legitimate. The Court of Appeals was always going to be the venue for the conclusion of this case. We are looking forward to presenting our argument in support of maintaining the congressional map.
This verdict did not have as far-reaching of an impact as one that was handed down by a lower court in late March. The Republican State Judge for Steuben County made the decision that the Legislature did not have the authority to draw the lines since the procedure that was mandated by the Constitutional Amendment from 2014 on redistricting was not followed.
In point of fact, the state Constitution is silent on the subject because Democrats chose to disregard the state statute that they had previously established to eliminate politics from the process of redistricting via the establishment of the Independent Redistricting Commission. The Commission did not provide any recommendations about the drawing of district borders, and it eventually gave up.
After the results of the Census showed that Democrats were about to lose seats in seven blue states, the Democrats decided to reverse their own procedure. It was necessary for New York to prevail against the anticipated gerrymandering that would come from Florida and Texas in order to guarantee victory for the GOP.
The Democrats fabricated a story in which they said that they had been rejected by the "Bipartisan Redrawing Commission," and then they went on and committed a political slaughter against the Republicans.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of appellate judges accepted the Republican positions. They claimed that the Congressional boundaries violated a new provision in the state constitution that makes it illegal to draw district maps with the intention of favoring a certain political party.
This verdict was handed down over opposition from two of the five judges. They said that it was reasonable to challenge the legitimacy of the technique that Republicans used to establish that lines were gerrymandered. This argument was made by Republicans.
The matter will be sent to the state's highest court, which is the Court of Appeals in this particular jurisdiction. Every single judge in their current positions was nominated by Democrats.
The New York Republican Party has been torn apart by feuding among its ranks. The party does not currently occupy any posts at the state level, and there is little optimism over the party's future. The results of redistricting will be the same as those of the last redistricting. This will continue so long as Democrats in New York maintain their one-party monopoly and Republicans continue to battle among themselves in an ineffective manner.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Real News Real Patriots.
